According to HousingWire, Newrez, a mortgage servicer, has agreed to pay fifteen point five million dollars to resolve issues with how it handled lender-placed insurance across multiple states. The settlement came together with state mortgage regulators from forty-six states plus Washington, D.C., and includes nearly ten million in penalties along with over four and a half million in consumer relief that the company has already distributed to affected borrowers.
The investigation started back in January twenty twenty-two and looked at Newrez's mortgage servicing practices over a specific year-long period. Regulators found that Newrez had improperly charged some borrowers for lender-placed insurance even when those borrowers already had active homeowners insurance policies in place. This violated federal lending regulations around insurance requirements and disclosure procedures.
Lender-placed insurance is a coverage option that servicers can put in place when a borrower's homeowners insurance lapses or is insufficient. The problem is that this type of insurance typically costs borrowers significantly more than if they shopped for their own coverage. In Newrez's case, the improper charges resulted in consumer harm totaling around four and a half million dollars.
Newrez neither admits nor denies any violations as part of this settlement, but the company has committed to several ongoing obligations. They must conduct additional audits of their lender-placed insurance practices on newly boarded loans and refund any borrowers who were improperly charged. They also have to provide quarterly updates to regulators and implement enhanced testing procedures on new loans for a full year to catch any errors before they harm consumers.
What I am seeing locally here in the Bay Area and across the East Bay is that these kinds of enforcement actions remind us all how important it is to stay vigilant about our homeowners insurance. For sellers, this is a good reminder to make sure your insurance is always current when working with a mortgage servicer. For buyers, pay close attention to any insurance-related charges and communications from your servicer after closing, because mistakes do happen and you want to catch them quickly.
